Your commercial property tax bill arrives, and you think the figure is too high. What now?
Understanding the five progressive steps will be crucial to giving yourself the best chance of reducing your bill.
Your tax is calculated in January, and you have until April 30 of the following year to submit any appeal, but moving sooner will give you peace of mind sooner.
Here is what you need to do:
Step 1: Decide what you think you should be paying
You cannot just walk into the tax assessor’s office and say, “I don’t like my bill.” First, you need a basis on which to build your argument. Checking out what others with similar properties in the area are paying is a first step to spot if your is out of line.
Step 2: Work out how they arrived at your figure
Assessors can choose from a variety of methods to value your property. Ascertaining which they used and how results vary using different methods helps build your case if other ways come out lower.
Step 3: Ask for your bill to be reduced
If you can explain to the people that worked out your bill why you think it is wrong, they may agree and lower it.Step 4: Make a written appeal
Get legal help to present this to the Board of Appeal and Equalization.
Step 5: Take it to court
Hopefully, you can resolve your commercial property tax issues without resorting to litigation. Yet sometimes you have to go this far. Getting experienced legal guidance from the start reduces the chance you need to go this far and increases the likelihood of succeeding if you do.